Is Your Site Delivering You Success?

Posted by Alec Hess

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That’s right, I said “delivering you success.” Many businesses treat their website as a glorified business card; only the facts, maybe a few lines about what they do; actually more like an old fashioned yellow pages ad. They seem to think of their site as a static semi-ad that isn’t really a part of their marketing and branding efforts and mostly it just sits there year after year without much change or thought.

Don’t let this happen to your company website. With all the knowledge collected over the last decade through trial and error, we now know how to make any business better through the smart use of an activated website. 

Energize Your Website As an Active Partner

Your site should draw in new customers through good SEO techniques. It should lead them through a vibrant and interactive sales funnel to produce more business. It should attract attention and stimulate action. In short it should be actively selling your brand and your expertise like no other single entity can; except maybe you. Think of your website as a partner; depend on it and expect performance from it.

Skilled Development Takes Expertise

If you study hard enough, all the information you need to develop your own company website into a hard working, modern, 21st century beast is available. But our advice is to team up with an expert who is committed to the latest science of persuasion, enlisting the best of practice website technology and proven strategies.

1. Can you show me some websites like the one I need that you’ve built?
2. How many websites have you developed?
3. What platform or technologies will my site be built on? Good answers are: PhP, CMS (Customer Management System), WordPress, Joomla, Html 5, CSS
4. How are you building my website for good SEO? Answer: Designing it from the bottom up with SEO in mind: good content, using H1, H2 and H3 tags, standards compliant, Google Panda aware, etc. Write down and check out the answers, web building is always changing.
5. Will my site be standards compliant? Will you deliver a report showing compliance?
6. Will my site be cross-checked on multiple browser – operating system combinations? Which ones?
7. What qualifications do your developers have?
8. Where are your developers located?
9. How easy will it be for me to make changes? How?
10. Will my site be mobile device friendly? How will you do that?
11. What costs will I pay for support?

Asking Hard Questions Because You Deserve the Best

The above questions are just the basics that any website developer should be happy to answer. Sometimes the details will need to be worked out as the basic site is designed and organized. But asking these kinds of questions will alert any developer that you are smart and will not be satisfied unless you receive a modern, sophisticated website specifically developed to make your company shine, and build your business.

Make no mistake, if you are building your company website or thinking of improving it, you want to leverage the absolute latest, most proven techniques and methodologies. Don’t waste your money on a ho-hum, so-so website. Get a top flight, profit improving site, or go home. Your competitors will if you don’t.

On the next tab are great vendors offering sophisticated, cutting edge results. The third tab is a collection of the best deals anywhere on the Internet. Tell them we sent you. And go out and grow your business.

Alec Hess is a marketer and small business expert as well as Principal of Full Voice Media and Vanguard Healthcare Products; and co-founder of BizSaves. His focus is on small business success and he has consulted, guided and advised many firms.
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More Great Articles on Website Development::

Entrepreneur: How do I find the best and most cost-effective website development firms? Entrepreneur: Should I Learn Web Development? Forbes: Test and Improve Your Website